1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a separator for fuel cells, a fuel cell, a fuel cell stack, and a method of manufacturing a separator for fuel cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
A separator for fuel cells is used as a member of a fuel cell that constitutes a fuel cell stack, and has a function to supply an electrode with fuel gas or air through gas flow channels and a function to collect electrons generated at the electrode. In the past, as such a separator for fuel cells, there has been used a separator for fuel cells configured such that a carbon plate is formed with gas flow channels.
When a carbon plate is used as a material that constitutes a separator for fuel cells, however, there is a problem in that the material cost and working cost increase. It is therefore required to substitute the carbon plate with a metal, such as aluminum, stainless steel or titanium alloy, which can reduce the material cost and can be formed with gas flow channels at low cost by means of high speed press working.
To this end, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-351642) discloses a separator for fuel cells configured such that a metallic base material is used as a mother material of the separator for fuel cells and a first layer of a certain element and a gold plate layer are formed on the metallic base material by means of electrolytic plating, for example.